Ray Bradbury
A great, prescient short story writer for classroom discussion about technology and our lives.
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Dear Subscribers,
Ray Bradbury wrote in the 1950s about topics that pre-occupy us today too: war, foreign attack, family breakdown, societal change and especially the possible dystopian aspects of technology in our lives.
He was a very direct writer, his stories tell a tale without much puffery but they have important lessons about education, the value of knowledge and personal freedoms.
We’ve recently added 4 audiobooks of his to our YouTube channel Find the videos HERE, all with supplemental materials teachers can use with each short story. The Veldt. The Illustrated Man. The Pedestrian. There Will Come A Soft Rain. The Sound Of Thunder. All Summer In A Day.
Read along with the text, discuss the stories and how they speak to us about the role of technology in our lives. Use some questions about the future or technology to discuss more in depth.
His words from long ago, ring even louder today.
The Veldt. A story of a family with a strange technologically controlling nursery that effects the family with horrific consequences.
The Pedestrian. A man walks the streets at night. He eschews technology and especially the TV which enraptures everyone each evening. The police stop him, he’s weird. An important story about the inter-twinning of technology and policing/surveillance.
There Will Come Soft Rains. A story highlighting a poem by Sara Teasdale about nature and its predominance, despite our hubris as humans. Bradbury describes a house that survived a nuclear war. No people but all the technology still works, carries on.
All Summer In A Day. I watched this as a grade 6 student. Perfect for a lesson about bullying. Set on a planet where the sun only comes out once every 7 years. Haunting.
Get all the resources that accompany these stories HERE.
